H.E.L.P. Haiti

Haiti is a country filled with people who have in the last couple of years faced the devastation and living with the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that not only rocked the ground they stood on, but rocked their entire world.  Haiti is a Fourth-World Country.  We are much more familiar with the term “Third-World Country.”  It signifies a country that is impoverished, underdeveloped, and typically tied to a corrupt government.  Haiti is all of these, but more.  They were a Fourth-World Country, even before the earthquake devastated its land.  After the earthquake, came the Cholera outbreak, and then the hurricane.  Some have said that Haiti is a country forgotten by God.  Or, even a country that is being punished by God for all of their sins.  And, in a country filled with Voodoo practices and corrupt government that protects the rich, steals the dignity of the poor, and violates the voiceless, I might be inclined to agree.  Let it all go to pots.  Who cares?

Except.

I’ve seen the beauty of Haitian people.  They are beautiful. The Church of Haiti is beautiful.   I was in a church community that made a list – the weakest and most needy to the strongest and the least needy.  Then, they started building homes.  As they themselves lived in leaky tents with wet floors, they were building homes for the weakest and the most needy.  They are taking care of the least of these.  I met a Haitian pastor who literally threw away his dreams for giving his family a “better” life as he threw away his family’s visa to Puerto Rico.  He had brought the visas home and presented them to his wife who was taking care of 30 orphans at their church after the earthquake hit.  She looked at the visas and asked, “Who will take care of these children if we leave?”  So, they chose the better life; a life following their call from Jesus who asked them to take care of the orphans in Haiti rather than leave the country.  And, I met a church community at JRO1, the largest tent city in Haiti.  Their women were daily falling prey into the hands of those who took advantage of their situation and their children were going hungry.  Yet, during their night church service, I stood amongst my sisters and brothers in Christ who I will get to spend in perfect eternity.  That night, I watched in awe.  My heart is forever changed with the conviction that our worship is not determined by our circumstances.  They worship God in a way that I’ve never experienced before. 

The pictures hang on our H.E.L.P. (Help End Local Poverty) wall.  A picture of the children in the community who are building home for the least of these, a picture of Pastor Gaetan with his arm around one of the orphans as he chose a better life for his family, and a pictures of a church community worshipping God in the mist of their circumstances all remind me of the beauty of the Haitian people.  The beauty of the Haitian church.